Work

YUMINO SEKI AND CALEB MADDEN 2017

yotard's postmodern politics involves the attempt to rethink the political after the death of metanarratives such as Marxism and liberalism. Lyotard rejects all dominant political ideologies as master-narratives which exclude minorities and do violence to the heterogenous nature of social reality. This rejection is manifested in the philosophy of paganism that preceded Lyotard's postmodernism. Here, the notion of "impiety" associated with the pagan is a rejection of “pious” political ideologies which unquestioningly assert principles and values as universally and unquestioningly true. In its mature form, Lyotard's postmodern politics deals with the concern for justice and the need to bear witness to the differend. In the case of a differend, a wrong is done to a party who cannot phrase their hurt (See Postmodernism (c) The Differend). For Lyotard, no just resolution of a differend is possible. Because of the radical incommensurability of phrase regimes in the case of a differend, any "resolution" would only assert the legitimacy of one phrase regime at the cost of silencing the other, thus deepening the wrong. Justice demands a witnessing and a remembering of the fact that there is a differend. This means presenting the fact that a wrong has been done which cannot itself be presented. This is then the contradictory task of presenting the unpresentable, a task Lyotard sees as best accomplished in the arena of art.

*Text: Listening to the Stars by Salomé Voegelin Published originally in What Matters Now? (What Can't You Hear?), Noch #1 - April 2013, Vv.Aa. Edited by Daniela Cascella and Paolo Inverni http://www.nochpublishing.com/catalogue/whatmattersnow.html

Performed on the Sounding Out Podcast: https://soundstudiesblog.com/podcast/

Noise from Below detail

Noise From Below

Live Performance with Yumino Seki

Grunt Werk

Grunt Werk

Grunt Werk

Hot Fizz, 2016

Western culture's weird relationship with its environment. A plastic shopping bag containing water is suspended, via a scaffold tripod. The punctured bag drips on to a domestic hotplate, removed from its worktop. The entire assemblage sits atop an astro turf 'plinth bathed in lurid pink LED light.

Two works shown together as part of a work in progress show at the University of Brighton. Bass Superstructure - Steel sheet 2.5m x 1.25m, prepared 5ft strip light, scaffold, audio transducer, automated sequence. Sub Culture - Car audio subwoofer with amp, desk fan, pick up coil.

Utilising field recordings taken at Little Cheyne wind farm, A Brackish Hymn examines Romney Marsh through the dislocation of sound.

Collaboration With Cieciura/DeSousa as part of the De La Warr Pavilion/Dear Serge Curation of St Mary's Church in Ivychurch, Romney Marsh, 2015

Rhythm out of Time

3 way collaboration between Cieciura/DeSousa, Graham Dunning and Caleb Madden to mark the De La Warr Pavilion/Dear Serge curation of St Mary's church in Ivychurch as part of Art in Romney Marsh festival 2015.

The work consists of a 12" vinyl record featuring on one side, a site recording of the installation A Brackish Hymn by Cieciura/De Sousa and Caleb Madden, on the other side A Brackish Dub - a re-amped recording of the Rhythm and Drone performance by Graham Dunning at St Mary's Church. Graham's performance utilised pre-cut dubplate recordings of the wind turbines used in the installation. This performance was recorded and mixed then re-amped in situ to create the final, 13 century church reverb soaked, document.

This work will be available to buy soon in a very limited edition of 10.

Trace. Tate Modern 2014

Trace is a sound commission for Tate Modern completed in 2014.

The brief for the project requested audio projects made specifically to be listened to on headphones within the Tate Modern galleries and building. The requirement was that it would be an engaging intervention for visitors of Tate Modern; to be listened to as they move through the different spaces of the building.

For the work I traveled to Fawley Power Station, near Southampton. The station (which has since ceased operation) was one of the last remaining oil fired power stations in the UK. This is the same type of station as the Bankside facility before its re-incarnation as an art gallery.

I used binaural microphones to record many sounds at Fawley, including close proximity recordings of the turbines in operation. you can read more about the project here, and and listen to the recordings here.